The Oldest Surviving Photographs In The World
In the mid-1820s, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the oldest surviving photograph of a real-life scene. Since then, photography spread across several countries, where other inventors improved upon the craft. Although pictures are commonplace today, photos of people, the moon, and planes were treasures back in the 1800s. Here are many “firsts” of photography, from the oldest aerial to the first self-portrait.
The First Photo Ever Taken
The world’s oldest photograph is thought to have been taken in either 1826 or 1827. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a primitive camera to take a picture of his estate. The cloudy photo shows the Le Gras in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes estate in Bourgogne, France, from Niépce’s window.
Niépce used a method called heliography, which engraved the photograph onto a plate. Because of this, no duplicates exist. The one and only picture hangs in the University of Texas at Austin. If any older photos still exist, then historians have not discovered them yet.
An Old Photo of the Washington Monument
The design of the Washington Monument underwent various revisions before construction began, and the monument itself took decades to fully complete as the Civil War interrupted its construction.
This photo shows the state of the Washington Monument during the Civil War — for many years, it was really just a stump. This construction interruption is the reason for the monument having two distinct colors when you look at it up close.
The Oldest Photo Featuring A Person
The first known photograph of a human was taken in 1838. The photographer, Louis Daguerre, snapped a picture of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. If you do not see the person, look closely at the bottom left.
On the side, a man is getting his shoes shined. He remained still long enough for the long exposure to capture him. Daguerre did not know that a person was there; it was entirely an accident. In the early days of photography, capturing a visible person on camera was rare.
One of the First Commercial Photographs
This 1844 photo, “Image Of A Haystack,” was taken by photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot and depicts, appropriately enough, a particularly large haystack.
What makes this photograph so noteworthy is the fact that it appeared in The Pencil of Nature, which was the first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published.
The First Self-Portrait
Although selfies are a modern phenomenon, self-portraits date back to 1839. This was taken by (and features) Robert Cornelius, an American photographer who pioneered the field. Between 1841 and 1843, he operated one of the earliest photography studios ever and aimed to decrease the camera’s exposure time.
Cornelius invented the “solar lamp,” a camera light that uses lard. It burned brighter and cost less than traditional whale oil lights. During this self-portrait, he was testing the light source. On the back of the photograph, Cornelius wrote, “The first light picture ever taken.”
The First Plane And A Man’s First Photo
On December 17, 1903, aerialists Orville and Wilbur Wright traveled to the Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. They were testing their new glider in a private spot away from reporters. However, they also brought along John Thomas Daniels Jr. from the Life-Saving Station (similar to a coast guard). Daniels was an amateur photographer–in fact, this was his first photo!
The Wright brothers brought their Gundlach Korona 5×7-inch glass plate view camera and a tripod. They then handed it to Daniels, who had never even seen a camera before. Fortunately, he managed to capture Orville flying the first plane.
An Early Staged Photograph
Early photographs are generally straightforward affairs, with the photographer choosing a static subject, then setting up their equipment to take a photo.
This 1840 photo, known as Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man, may be the earliest staged photograph, and is certainly one of the earliest surviving examples of a photograph with artistic intent. The image shows French photographer Hippolyte Bayard, and was possibly created as a protest against the French government’s perceived neglect of the photographic process.
The First Photo Of The Sun
The oldest surviving photograph of the sun dates back to 1845. Two French physicists, Louis Fizeau and Leon Foucault, took the picture during sunrise on April 2. The vintage photo is only five inches long and wide, with several sunspots throughout.
Fizeau and Foucault used a daguerreotype, but they altered the chemical treatment to make it more light-sensitive. They only exposed the camera for 1/60th of a second, and then they treated the picture on a metal disc with chemical fumes. Once they achieved the clarity they wanted, they “froze” the image with another chemical solution.
The Oldest Picture Featured In The News
Photojournalism is explaining or emphasizing news reports through pictures. The oldest photo taken for the news has little information. Historians still do not know who took the photo or who is depicted in it.
Here is what we know: the picture was taken in 1847 and shows a man being arrested in France. It is also the first photograph of an arrest. This illustration was not printed onto paper; it was engraved on the end grain of wood. In magazines and newspapers, that method became commonplace through the 1870s.
A Photo of Daguerre’s Apartment
Photographers looking for inspiration often seek out the locations they know best, so it stands to reason that Louis Daguerre chose his own apartment as the subject for one of his daguerreotypes.
This image shows a row of apartments along Boulevard Saint-Martin in Paris, one of which was Daguerre’s home for a time.
The First Color Photograph
Once photographers got the hang of cameras, they immediately started working on color pictures. In 1855, James Clerk Maxwell invented the three-color method. This technique can create any color through three primary colors, similar to how printers work today.
In 1861, photographer Thomas Sutton joined Maxwell to test the three-color method. They snapped a picture of a colorful ribbon that is tied in a knot. Although it was successful, photography’s full-color spectrum would not be invented until 1906. The original colored picture hands in Maxwell’s former home, which is now a museum in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Oldest Aerial Photograph
Although some people view aerial photographs as modern technology, they actually date back to 1860. Throughout the 1850s, French photographer Gaspar Felix Tournachon, known as “Nadar,” combined his two passions of ballooning and photography. He spent several years trying to take an aerial photograph of the French village of Petit-Becetre.
Sadly, Nadar was beaten by Boston photographer James Wallace Black. On October 13, 1860, Black flew 2,000 feet high on his hot air balloon. He snapped a picture of Boston, the earliest known aerial picture (seen here). Nadar’s oldest photo did not arise until 1866.
The First Image of Notre Dame de Paris
This daguerreotype came out a bit murky, but it’s still identifiable as the venerable Notre Dame de Paris, the iconic medieval Catholic cathedral located on an island in the River Seine.
It’s further evidence that while Louis Daguerre was a pioneer in the field of photography in general (and outdoor photography in particular), it was a challenge in the early days to produce images with much visual fidelity.
An Early Picture Of Josef Stalin
This is one of the oldest known pictures of Josef Stalin. In this 1901 portrait, he was 23 years old. But he was also at a crucial turning point in his life. In November of that year, he joined the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.
This would eventually become known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party during the 1912 revolution. This committee formed strategies for the future communist Russia.
The First Photograph Of A U.S. President
In 1839, Louis Daguerre released the first commercially available camera, called the daguerreotype. The United States’ sixth president, John Quincy Adams, took advantage of this. His photographer was Philip Haas, a German-born, American citizen who traveled to Paris to learn about photography.
Daguerreotypes had to be colorized on silver-plated copper sheets, which required a long post-photo process. Adams also had to sit completely still for 60 to 90 seconds. But he did it, and his photo was taken in 1843, 14 years after he left office. The first president to be photographed while in office was William Henry Harrison in 1841.
The First Open-Air Daguerreotype
This captivating image reveals, in some detail, the Pont Neuf (or “New Bridge”) in Paris as it appeared in 1838. Louis Daguerre captured the image, which is said to be the first successful daguerreotype taken in open air.
Nowadays, nearly two centuries later, the landscape is recognizable but still very different. One thing that hasn’t changed is Pont Neuf itself, which has stood over the Seine since its construction in 1607.
The Oldest Colored Landscape In Existence
In the late 19th century, photographers used the three-color theory to create colored images. Many had to take a photo three times and layer them on top of each other. But in 1877, photographer Louis Ducos du Hauron had a better idea.
He stacked three color recording emulsions on top of each other so that they could all be exposed at once. To test it, he took the first colored landscape photo. The image, called “Landscape of Southern France,” depicts a small French village. Hauron’s “tripacks” revolutionized the history of photography.
Photographing The Eiffel Tower Throughout Its Construction
The oldest photos of the Eiffel Tower were taken during its construction. Construction began in 1887, as the tower was designed to be the entrance for the 1889 World’s Fair. From the beginning, photographer Hippolyte Blancard documented the building’s construction.
From July 1887 to April 1889, Blancard captured several pictures of the Eiffel Tower. The elevator was built first, and engineers formed the base around it. Blancard’s most famous photo from this era was printed in August 1888. The tower’s architect, Gustave Eiffel, stands beneath it.
One of the Oldest Photos of a Person
Some of the details of this daguerreotype are a tad hazy. What we do know is that it is indeed a daguerreotype that was authentically created by Louis Daguerre in 1837.
The back of the image features the inscription “M. Huet 1837” along with Daguerre’s signature. It’s believed that it depicts Constant Huet, who worked alongside Daguerre at the Natural History Museum.
The Earliest-Known Picture Of Abraham Lincoln
The earliest photo of Abraham Lincoln was taken in 1846 or 1847, decades before he became president. At the time, Lincoln was a frontier lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, and he had recently been elected to the House of Representatives. He was 37 or 38 years old, and daguerreotypes were still in their infancy.
The photographer, Nicholas H. Shepherd, took several photographs of American government officials. According to Lincoln’s son, Robert, this picture was taken in either St. Louis or Washington, although historians cannot confirm which.
The Oldest Digital Photograph
Digital photography began developing in the 1950s. In 1951, American engineers led by Russell Kirsch found a way to send digital signals to a magnetic tape, resulting in the first tape recorder. But they could not translate images until 1957.
That year, Kirsch took a picture of his three-month-old son, Walden. He scanned an analog photograph onto a tiny file using a primitive computer. But digital photography still had a long way to go. It wasn’t until 1975 that Steven Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak, constructed the first digital camera.
The Oldest Japanese Daguerreotype
This blue-tinged daguerreotype is the oldest example made by a Japanese author, and was also the first photo designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government in 1999.
The image was created by Shiro Ichiki and depicts Nariakira Shimazu, a Japanese feudal lord of the Edo period. It’s evidence that by the middle of the 19th century, photography had spread around the world.
The Oldest Picture Of The United States, Ever
Although the first cameras were developed in France, the technology quickly traveled to other countries, including the United States. America’s earliest known photo was taken by inventor Joseph Saxton. He snapped a picture of Central High School in Philadelphia, his hometown.
Using a daguerreotype, Saxton sat on the corner of Juniper and Walnut streets for a full ten minutes to capture this building. He worked at U.S. Mint, and this high school was across the street. Saxton fiddled with the new technology for years after he photographed this school
Panoramic Pictures Have Been Around For Over A Century
Shortly after the invention of the camera, photographers worked to make panoramic pictures. In the 1850s, they created photos of cityscapes by attaching multiple daguerreotype plates together. In the 1890s, inventors came up with the first panoramic camera.
These cameras–which were commercialized as the Al-Vista in 1898–could rotate both the camera and the film 360 degrees. They used “swing lenses” and “roll film,” which could rotate without a tripod. Oddly enough, the first panoramic camera was patented in Austria in the 1940s; but no pictures from this era survived.
An Iconic Environmental Portrait
This 1857 image of famed British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel standing by the massive anchor chains of the ship he designed — the innovative but troubled Great Eastern — is one of the earliest and best examples of environmental portraiture.
While other outdoor imagery had been taken before this photo, the clarity and the context of this photo — showing one of the world’s great engineers in front of a symbol of the Industrial Revolution — made it one of the most powerful photographs of the 19th century.
The Only Known Photo Of Vincent Van Gogh
In 1873, artist Vincent Van Gogh was 19 years old. He lived during the infancy of photography, but not many images of him exist. This is the only surviving photo of the artist; historians often mistook images of him for his brother, Theo.
That January, Van Gogh prepared for his first job as an art dealer in London. Before he left, he and his brother took photos of themselves to give to their father. Historians do not know who took the photograph, but Van Gogh told his sister that the experience had not been pleasant.
Mecca, One Of The Earliest Religious Photos
Today, photographs of churches and spiritual cites are common. But one of the first religious photographs in the world shows Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia. Taken in 1881, this photo shows the Great Mosque and Kaaba, the shrine at its center.
The photographer, Muhammad Sadiq Bey, was a surveyor and engineer for the Egyptian Army. Because photographers outside of Europe and America were not well-studied, not much is known about Bey. But he captured some important photographs throughout history, including the oldest known picture of Islam’s holiest city.
Mark Twain Was Photographed When He Was 15
Mark Twain was photographed thousands of times before his death. But when he was young, photographs were rare. The earliest known picture of Twain shows him as a 15-year-old boy.
In 1850, photographer G.H. Jones took a daguerreotype of Twain. He is wearing a printer’s cap and carries a composing stick with his birth name on it (Samuel Clemens), which he had to spell backward for it to appear on the camera. This is one of the oldest surviving photos of a celebrity taken well before he became famous.
The First Photographic Negative
While it’s true that this image of a series of faint squares doesn’t look like much, it’s still a tremendously important image in the context of photography. That’s because it’s the earliest surviving photographic negative, and also the earliest surviving paper photograph.
Taken in 1839 by William Henry Fox Talbot using the calotype method, the image shows a window at Lacock Abbey. While not an impressive image, it was a powerful proof-of-concept showing that photography could be a faster, less messy process.
One Of The Most Famous Early War Images
The Crimean War, fought between Russia and an alliance of England, France, and the Ottoman Empire, was the first widely-photographed war. Although the most well-known photographer was the Romanian Carol Popp de Szathmari, he did not snap the most famous picture. That was the result of British photographer Roger Fenton.
Fenton was sent to document the Crimean War by Thomas Agnew of Agnew & Sons. In 1855, he snapped a photo of a battlefield that British soldiers nicknamed “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” for its constant shelling. The Valley of the Shadow of Death photo became one of the most recognizable images of war.
